Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Laxity by the authorities during campaigns

Parliament has now been dissolved and the stage is now set for elections. However I have noticed some strange things happening that were never the case before campaigns started getting hot.

Matatus have gone back to their old ways of disobeying traffic rules, Matatu drivers overlap on roads causing 3 to 4 lanes on roads that should only have one way on each side, they do this in full view of the police. I was shocked to see more than 20 matatus overlapping on Ngong Road making the road chaotic for other motorists. At first I thought the police were not around and the matatu drivers were aware, but I was shocked to see policemen at the junctions as usual.

The other strange happening I have see lately is that hawkers are back on some streets of Nairobi in the evenings. I was shocked because they have not been around for a long time. They are so relaxed one would think City Council askaris are all on leave.

It had not occurred to me that this is campaign time until I heard comments from people that its campaign time, so no one will arrest them. Then I also remembered how matatus where overlapping on the roads in full view of the police and said yes its campaign time.

It is very interesting that the authority relax rules to attract votes from wananchi obviously to the government side. If the government has performed well then they should continue performing even to the last minute because people would vote for them if they are satisfied. I don’t believe that relaxing rules that are there to maintain law and order in the city, should be relaxed during campaigns to please voters.